AVALON RISING (Merlin Continued)
by xXMistyImaginingsXx
Summary: Not long ago in the town of Caerleon, not far outside Newport and Whales, lays secrets and magics most people can only ever dream of. Or maybe even read in a story book, though one a young girl named Ezra believes to have been true once upon a time: The quest for Camelot.
1. Magics Missed Pt 1

_**Not long ago in the town of Carleon, not far outside Newport and Whales, lays secrets and magics most people can only ever dream of. Or maybe even read in a story book, though one a young girl named Ezra believes to have been true once upon a time: The quest for Camelot.**_

 _ **8 years ago in Newport, England...**_  
 _ **9/9/2000**_

"Aaron, stop playing with the window," says the older woman to her young barely teenaged son. The brunette haired boy looks at her for a second and sighs before opting to pull out his ipod and listen to some music instead. The woman grimaces sadly and looks back at her young daughter of only seven years of age. The girl was passed out in her car seat, her fiery red curls strewn all over her face and her hazel eyes closed. The bright moonlight shown brightly over her alabaster skin. The older woman turned her attention away from her children when she heard a deep yawn next to her. She looks at her husband, who his resembles so much, next to her in the drivers seat. She smiles and takes his free hand as his other in on the wheel.

The family was just coming back from their cabin. They had been on vacation for a whole two weeks together, but now their father was expected back at work and so was the mother. It was very late now since their cabin was very far out from town. Several hours and the young daughter had insisted that they'd have one more campfire night with ghost stories and smores. The works. The mother looked up at the stars and sighed tiredly. The ghost a smile graced her lips and she leaned back in her seat, her fingers still entwined with her husbands. This was perfect.

Too bad she forgot that perfect pleasantly doesn't exist.

The father had grown so tired and hadn't noticed the truck coming the opposite way of them approaching the bend. The father made a sharp turn to avoid hitting the gate near the ledge of the road, but then hit the truck full on in the side. With the truck being much heavier than the families own, their car was flipped over and spun back on the road, tumbling over and over again. The mother wasn't sure it was even going to stop and then it did finally. She weakly lifted her head up. She felt a sticky, hot liquid drip over her head and into her eyes. The red clouded and nearly blinded her vision, but the adrenaline kept her going. Her children were in the back of this car. Her son had been safely cushioned by the air bags and the door had come off some time ago and let him out of the car safely by some odd miracle. The woman's husband was passed out beside her, seemingly with only a few cuts and bruises, probably a concussion and a broken arm and hand. The two boys had been on the opposing side that the truck had come on. The mother felt a terrible wave of dread as she realized that her daughter, her little girl had been hit head on as well as she. The mother craned her neck to try and see passed her mangled seat but she couldn't. She began to get desperate and tried anything she could to wriggle out of her confines the mangled car had created. She felt a piece of metal poking into the front of her thigh, but she still tired to pull herself free, despite the metal shard clawing her open as she moved. Nothing else mattered but her children right now. Some others might have said the woman was crazy to further risk her life just to get a glimpse of her girl, but any other mother would have understood this kind of love. The woman eventually pulled herself free enough, despite the agony it had caused her. She screamed as she continued to drag herself forward and even though the psychical pain was tormenting the sight before her was much more so. Her little girl laid partly on the street, her waist still trapped in the seat belt and the rest of her body laying on the street, since the car was still tilted on it's side. The mother felt woozy from the sight of her daughters blood and more than likely the amount she had lost of her own. She held her bloodied hand out and placed it on her daughters cheek. The mother had smeared blood over his daughters face, the little girl was so cold already. The woman didn't even know how much time had passed. Nothing mattered besides her girl. The mother trailed her hand down onto her daughters chest, desperate to find a heartbeat.

"Please," she begged to herself and her cries went out into the night. There must have been some stroke of magic that night, because the girl began to shift uncomfortably and unconsciously. Tears fell from the mothers eyes in relief, but also great pain. She could feel the blood gushing from her leg and ankle, she'd no doubt torn an artery, but it was okay in her mind because her children were alive. The woman's vision began to blur and her world began to spin dangerously. She thought she could hear the whir of sirens briefly heading in this direction. She smiled wetly and tears and blood rolled over her lips. The mother laid her head down and heard no more.

 _ **4 months ago in Dublin, Ireland...**_  
 _ **5/7/2008**_

"Can't think strait again, huh Ezra?"

"Yes, Miss," says the young ginger haired girl as she looked down at her feet and scuffs her ked sneakers on the linoleum flooring. The guidance councilor, Amelia Wyatt, looks sympathetically at the girl.

"Okay, what happened this time?"

"Nothing," Ezra answers quickly and lowly, keeping her head down and a mess of red curls shade her pale face. Amelia grimaces sadly from where she's sitting on the opposing side of her desk to Ezra. She reaches her hand out and pushes locks of Ezra's hair out of her face and feels a few drops of some sticky substance stuck in her hair. Amelia sighs sadly ad grabs a tissue, she presses it to Ezra's split lip. "What were the girls names?"

"It doesn't even matter," Ezra says with a mildly heated edge to her voice as she moves Amelia's hand and hold the tissue to her lip on her own.

"They could get suspended or expelled for-"

"I've been here enough times to know how this goes." Amelia sighs again and pushes herself up from her seat. It creaks against the floor and Amelia moves around the dark wood desk. Amelia's concern only grown more when she notices the oddly circular cuts on her left shoulder.

"What are these?" Amelia asks, thankful that Ezra was wearing a tank top today otherwise she would have missed it.

"...Pencils." Amelia quirked an eyebrow her eyes widen marginally.

"They stabbed you with pencils?" She inquires exasperatedly. Ezra sniffles and stays quiet. The young girl glances up at the older woman and nods solemnly. Amelia silently gestures for Ezra to get up. The girl does so promptly and Amelia walks her to the nurses office. Amelia waves the nurse away and sits Ezra down herself and starts to patch her up. Amelia reaches up, standing on the balls of her feet to reach the upper cabinet. She takes a blue bottle down, the contents of it would clean the wound, a gauze pad and a cotton ball. Amelia pulls a chair over from off to the side of the room, sits down and starts silently. At least for a while.

"You're not going to tell me their names?" Amelia asks again as she pours some of the contents of the bottle onto the cotton ball and begins to dab it on the marks on Ezra's arm.

"No..." Silence ensues again. Amelia, as much as she'd like to, can't force Ezra to say anything. Unfortunately, that's how the wonderful school system worked. Amelia very nearly rolled her eyes at her own sarcastic thought. The least she could normally do was have the girl patched up and on her way, but not this time. This time Amelia had a different idea. As soon as Amelia had finished cleaning the cuts to make sure they weren't infected she walks back over to the cabinet and counter. She pulls a booklet out of her bag. She walks back over and hands it to Ezra.

"Here, I know you love reading."

"What's this?" Ezra asks as she opens it up. She skims by some of the lines and shakes her head after a moment.

"A brochure for an academy in Carleon." Ezra sighs sadly and brings her knees up to her chest, curling up tight in her chair. "Aren't you excited to be going home?" Amelia questions.

"It hasn't been my home for three years, not since my father died," Ezra retorts sadly. The subject is still sore for her, possibly even still raw from the way the situation was handled, but still she didn't have the heart to snap. Especially not to Amelia Wyatt of all people.

"Home is where the heart is, as they say, and I think both you and Aaron left a piece of yours there." Ezra keeps her eyes focused down and averts her councilors gaze. All of the sudden the younger woman wraps her arms around Amelia.

"I'll miss you."

"I know, honey, I know."

 _ **_**_ இ _ **AVALON RISING**_ இ _ **_**_

 _ **Present Day in Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **9/9/2008**_

Aaron groaned as he opened another cardboard box and was met with books this time. Last it was plates and cups and before that it was clothes. So many piles and boxes full of clothes. Aaron knows he and Ezra really should have labeled the many various boxes, but of course they couldn't be bothered at the time. However they were young twenty something and teenaged and were still just as lazy and unorganized as anyone their age.

"Ezra! Do you know where we put the-"

"Towels?" Ezra asks, standing above where Aaron was knelt down over an opened box. She's already holding a light cream colored one in her hands. Aaron grins lightly and pushes himself up off the ground and onto his feet. "I figured out where they were a while ago."

"I figured," Aaron says back as he flicks a wet clumped lock of hair into her face. Ezra smiles wryly and laughs in fake annoyance as Aaron ruffles the girls ginger hair and more falls into her face.

"Stop it!" She whines, but still has a bright smile planted on her lips. "I don't want to look all ragged today." Aaron shrugs and pats his younger sister on the back.

"You're excited?"

"Yeah," Ezra answers. She kneels down over a box Aaron had previously opened, one full of books, her eyes scan through the different titled binding of the books. She ended up pulling out a story book of the Grimms fairytales. Most girls liked tales of princes on Shetland ponies and knights in shining armor, well, that wasn't Ezra. The reality of how it actually was was her kind of fairytale. Aaron quirked an eyebrow when he saw he slipping it into her light blue and brown backpack.

"You've probably read everything in that book a million times," says Aaron and Ezra shrugs "You're like that princess... Bella?"

"Belle," Ezra corrects "from beauty and the beast. You know this." Aaron cocks his head to the side.

"Hey, in my defense there is about a million princess'."

"Disney sure works overtime on all those," Ezra jokes. Her brother scoffs in obvious agreement. She goes through another stack of books. Aaron normally didn't encourage Ezra's fantasy oriented antics, but just today he figured it was alright.

"Hey, what do you like, which ones your favorite?" Ezra looks up and her eyes stay trained on a particular part of the ceiling to show that she was in thought, though she didn't stay like this for long.

"Guinevere," she answers. Aaron quirks an eyebrow.

"From the Shakespearean novel?" Ezra nods and this only serves to further Aaron's confused expression. "Didn't she cheat on her husband, the king, crush him and ultimately bring down Camelot?"

"There's more to her character than that," Ezra insists "she was a great ruler... for a while." Aaron chuckles lightly and under his breath. He shakes his head and grabs his keys off one of the dark wood end tables they had set up in their old family home.

"Come on, we better stop somewhere to get some decent food."

"Agreed," Ezra concurs, knowing neither of them could cook well to save their lives. She grabs the book titled The quest for Camelot and the two are on their way. Given the fact that it's their old hometown, the avoid any smaller local restaurants and especially any place either of their parents liked. Aaron would say that it was because he didn't want to make Ezra upset, but really it was blatantly obvious that he missed them both too.

 _ **8 years ago in Saint Joseph's Hospital in Newport, England...**_  
 _ **9/9/2000**_

Henry paced the halls of the hospital, paying his son no mind. He wasn't even thinking about him now, his thoughts were on his wife and her alone. A doctor came out a little while later. Little later being the time after Henry had downed several cups of coffee to keep himself awake in these late night hours. Henry instantly got to his feet, staring hysterically wide eyed at the woman. The doctor had a chart in her hand. "Are you Henry Aldebourne?" She asked, Henry could only, barely, nod stiffly. His entire form was rigid with fear. The doctor noted the small, brunette haired boy, who resembled Henry much, sitting in a chair not far from the man. The doctor promptly escorted Henry down a ways to the end of the hall. "I have reports on your daughter, Ezra." The man seems to deflate only slightly and he looses eye contact with the woman, though he does not ask her to keep quiet, so the doctor relays what she knows.

"Preliminary testing shows that she's suffered some brain trauma from the accident. We're still not sure if there's an internal bleeding, we're going to run some more tests, but the crash banged her up pretty bad..." says the doctor to the little girls father. His son, Aaron, was hardly injured at all as was he, but his wife, as far as he knew, lay in critical condition and was on the brink of death and his daughter had damage in her brain somehow. Doctors had been dumbfounded by the fact that, due to the trauma she should have received by the way the car had crashed, she should have gotten severe skull damage, cranial muscle contusions and tears and possibly even bleeding in the brain, however, none of these seemed plausible by what tests were showing. "She might never be the same again." Henry grows more tense than one might think the human body could possibly become, but in doing this he is able to keep his composure.

"My wife?" The shattering man grounds out roughly as he's trying to keep the anguish out of his tone. The doctor breathes in, looking incredibly pained herself. She tries to speak as gingerly as she can, but this type of thing is never an easy feat for any medic. Ever.

"She had a sharp shard of metal embedded in her femoral artery during the crash, her frantic movement caused it to tear... she bled out with in a matter of minutes. I'm-," the doctor choked on a rising sob. She'd never had to do this before "I'm sorry, Mr. Aldebourne, she didn't survive the crash." The world around Henry seemed to stop spinning, even the air remained motionless, refusing to enter the man's desperate lungs. A sharp, agonizing pang of agony shot through his chest, one more painful that a heart attack; a heartbreak and when the realization finally sunk in it was all too clear.

The frozen world around him shattered to broken shards of nothingness.

Pain flooded every aspect of his body, it hurt to breath, it hurt to think, it hurt to feel. Sobs racked his entire form. He howled in anguish. Screaming in agony with the pulsing pain that only picked up with every passing second.

The man kept on with his hysterics so much so that more nurses and doctors had to rush in to the hall to subdue him and his antics. Aaron, Henry's son, pushed himself weakly up from his chair and moved a few steps closer, watching in sheer horror as his father scream and fought with the doctors, hurting those around him and breaking things. Everything. He kept on screaming and screaming. _"She can't be- Helena you can't do this to me!"_ And _"lord, please, lord no! You can't take her! You can't take her away like this!"_ Aaron wasn't an idiot, he was very intelligent, he knew that Henry was talking about his mother. She was dead now... The crash had stolen her away from their family forever. Aaron began to cry, the onslaught of tears pouring. He stood in the middle of the hallway as doctors rushed passed, paying him no mind as they went to Henry, one with a sedative even. Aaron was alone. He looked towards a door off to the side, through the tinted glass he could faintly make out the form of a small girl. Ezra... his mind echoed. Without thought Aaron slowly made his way towards the door, his hand was shaky due to the constant sobs that continued, but he managed to get inside. The door slowly swung closed behind him as Aaron slowly shuffled into the room. Ezra laid on a high bed much too big for her looking no better than half dead. Aaron swallowed down a thick gob of phlegm in this throat as he came to the edge of the hospital bed on the left side. He gazed down at his sister. They could have lost her too, but she was alive. She looked so... at peace as she slept. Aaron crawled on the far side of the bed that Ezra's feet couldn't yet touch and curled up there, sobbing, but refusing to move away from his sister. His mother was dead, his father... had gone in another way it seemed. What did he have left? He was alone... Aaron couldn't stop sobbing no matter how hard he tried. It was so immense that he could barely stop to take a breath, it was constricting to the point of near suffocation. It was then that Aaron felt this strange feeling of peace, it was his mother's voice, uttering the words "you are not alone." Simply that single phrase over and over again. There was only one window in the room and it was covered by thick material curtains, but Aaron swore that a strange light, so faint it seemed almost nonexistent, flowed over Ezra's tranquil facial features. Aaron sniffed and laid a hand on Ezra's leg, the only place he could manage to touch from his current position, and he felt better somehow. Like his mother was still there and that it was all going to be okay in some way. Aaron wanted nothing more than to believe that it was true.

 _ **Present Day in Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **9/9/2008**_

Ezra stepped onto school grounds with Aaron by her side. Aaron was out of secondary school and in university currently. He was studying a form political science with the hopes to become a social advocate in the judicial system. It was a four year study, but Aaron was willing to put in the effort and time that it took. His only concern was all of the time Ezra might be spending on her own. Though she was, today, being enrolled into a private school known as St. Elyan secondary school. It's not that Ezra was unfriendly or rude, it's just that she was, well, a bit... odd at times. She still carried the belief of childish things such as prince's and knight's, dragon's and unicorn's, myths and magic. That last part was a popular theme. According to a few psychiatrist's Ezra had been brought to for her particular sessions that had to do with her apparent brain damage and trauma recovery, it was something she'd simply made up and they all believed it would eventually go away. Well, eight years later she still hadn't fully let go. She still believed there was some form of magic that was linked to everything, they- nobody else- just couldn't see it the way she did.

Aaron and Ezra found their way to the main office of the huge stone building- eventually- and started on finalizing Ezra's enrollment. "Can I have the contact information for her emergency contact?" The male secretary asks.

"That would be mine," Aaron says, shifting in his chair just slightly "and I think you already have that." The man raises his eyebrow a bit of a judgmental way. Aaron doesn't really like it.

"Preferably for her parent or guardian," the secretary adds. Aaron sits up straighter in his chair and looks at the man with a firm expression.

"Parental contact information is now.. irrelevant," Aaron says, avoiding the subject of death, blatantly anyways, in Ezra's presence. "I'm her legal guardian and I have all the damn paperwork to prove it, but for the sake of both of our precious time, I hope we can avoid all of it entirely and just move on." The secretary clears his throat and avoids eye contact temporarily with the young man who had so obviously put him to shame. Other teachers or secretary's were glancing at him, some with judgmental looks of their own. After all it was wrong to have preconceived notions of someone simply by their living or family situation.

Eventually all of that was straitened out Ezra was escorted to her first class. Sure, of course she'd told Aaron that she wasn't nervous, but really she was freaking out. She was just barely able to keep her exterior composure intact. Ezra felt uncomfortable in her uniform. She wore a white button down shirt that was just slightly too tight and the navy blue blazer that went around was just a little too big. She had navy blue pencil skirt to match and it was styled so that it was able to come up just a little below her endowments and fall down to about her knees. Her tights were dark color and her basic shoes were brown. The female secretary opened the door to the classroom and moved aside. "Here you are, dear." Ezra nods as a small thanks to the woman and gingerly moves inside, clutching her schedule written on paper in her sweaty hand and her brown burlap bag slung over her shoulder. Everyone else was already seated since Aaron had had such trouble finalizing Ezra's enrollment, it took some time and now she was marginally late. Several of them glanced at her others paid her no mind.

She counted the small blessings.

Ezra made her way to an empty desk in the second row and promptly sat down. She set her bag down at her feet and shoved her written schedule into the left pocket of her uniform blazer. Ezra stayed quiet while others chatted or goofed around. Seemingly they all knew each other. Was she the only first year in this class? Possibly.

The teacher did eventually waltz in, taking long strides and rambling about something under his breath. The man in question had striking blue eyes and his clothes were very basic and appropriate, nothing out of the ordinary. The thing about him that did stand out was the mans long fine white beard and hair to match. It wryly reminded Ezra of father christmas, though of course she didn't verbally mention that. He was still continuing to grumble about something or other, paying the class no mind and acting like he was alone without a care. He rummaged through some of the cabinets and shelves behind his desk. Some of the students began to give him odd looks whilst his back was turned and when a thick folder fell on the old man's foot he hissed and some of the kids snickered. The man briefly turned back to the class, acknowledging them for the first time. "You know where your books are, open 'em for gods sake." His voice was very gruff and demanding, most everyone student in the room quickly delved into their bags to pull out their respective textbooks. Ezra gulped, she had been so nervous prior that she wasn't even sure what class she was in! Ezra quickly pulled the folded paper from her pocket and looked it over. Latin, she had Latin now. While near everyone else's books were already out in front of them, Ezra was still trying to yank her's out of her bag. She though that the teacher's eyes had landed on her and she felt her cheeks redden from embarrassment, she soon realized afterwards that the teacher, whom she didn't know the name of, had moved in on the cocky boy in front of her. One that had been persistently annoying whilst awaiting the alleged teacher. The old teacher zoomed in on the student as he slung his feet up on his desk. On the first day too? Really?

"You having some trouble reading the title of the textbook there?" The teacher quipped. The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"No one needs Latin for anything these days, ya senile codger." Some of the other student's in the room rolled their eyes or groaned, Ezra noted. This kid must have had some kind of rep for being disruptive. None of the other student's seemed surprised by his actions, just irritated. Even the boy next to the annoying student, who was talking with him earlier, shook his head when the other prompted him.

"Swá secganá prat gelíc ðu," the teacher mutters. The boy looks confused, along with most of the students in the class. The teacher, however, doesn't seem to be exasperated to the fact that none of them understood what he had said. Ezra had taken Latin last year in her old school, she'd gotten a 89.0% scoring and she didn't get one word out of that. Well, none besides the word _prat_.

"Whaa?" The boy trailed off ignorantly. The teacher guffawed shortly and shook his head.

"And if you knew even a lick of Latin, you might have gotten that." Some of the students snickered at the boy and he didn't look happy about that.

"Do you know who I am?" The boy shot at the teacher in a low voice. Many of the student's groaned as the boy continued his egotistical talk. The old man stood back strait and nodded a few times, looking up, mockingly.

"Yes, yes. Lloyd Murray. You're a forward on the school rugby team if I'm not mistaken, yes, heard a lot about you." Nobody knew why the teacher was inflating the arrogant student's ego, but no one complained verbally. "You're going to graduate in year 2012.. from secondary school." a few of the student's lips parted, knowing that technically, since it was 2008, he should have graduated from university by then, no secondary school. The boy in question eyebrows raised in surprise. "You're going to attend a very prestigious university afterwards- a "community college" in America- And! In 2014 you'll have a wonderful, fulfilling career cleaning my home latrine." At the point every single other student in the class was working to hold back their laughter, in fear of getting called out by the verbally ruthless man. "Murray?"

"Yes, sir?" The boy nearly squeaked, which only amused and charged the other students more.

"Shut up and open your book to page 17." The class died down after that and all eyes were on the estranged, incredibly amusing, teacher. The teachers huffs when he see's the boy quickly grabbing his book from his bag out of the corner of his eye. "'Bout bloody time." The teacher, now behind his desk, grabs a piece of chalk and scribbles something down on the blackboard. "I'm not going to bother to introduce myself, if you can read you can figure out my name. If you can't read, well, I wouldn't figure you'd be in my class then." Amused expression's all around. The teacher began to go into the basic first day stuff, all that they'd be learning this year and so on and so forth.

Ezra squinted her eyes to read the messy scrawl the teacher had written out. Mr. ...Emrys? Or did he write Emry? It eluded Ezra to some extent, but she thought that extra line at the end probably was an 'S' so she was betting that it was Mr. Emrys. Just to clarify, no, Ezra wasn't stupid. She wasn't particularly a genius either, but by no means was she stupid. She simply never really learned cursive. It wasn't really needed these days other than having to sign your name or signature, so that was pleasantly all Ezra figured out how to do.

The class went on for a good forty-five minute duration before concluding for the day. Mr. Emrys had skipped attendance, claiming that it was a waste of time when he had a perfectly capable pair of eyes, and he also cut his basic first day explanation short, seeing as most of them were all second years and claimed that he didn't think the first years would have a problem catching on. With that the class was over. Ezra walked out of class behind most everyone else, trying to just lay low and stay calm. So much so actually that she jumped a mile high when someone tapped her on the back. The girl behind Ezra giggled hilariously. Ezra turned around, taking a few steps off to the side and out from in front of the doorway. Her ginger curls whipped the girl in questions face. The girl with dark skin wrinkles her nose as the hair brushes of her features. "Elaine?" Ezra asks with a pleased grin on her face. The english girl with latina features smiles wide and stretches her arms out the the side.

"Surprise," she says with a wink. Ezra instantly moves forward to hug her old childhood friend.

"It is so, so, so good to see a familiar face. Truly." Elaine giggles a little.

"You're squishing and squeezing a little tight there, Iz." Ezra rolls her eyes and lets go of her long lost friend.

"Well," Elaine starts "what's been up with you?" She asks as she lightly grabs Ezra's upper arm and starts to lead her away from the student's pouring into the hallway and shuffling along to their next classes.

"You make three years sound like a very short while," Ezra remarks with a smirk. Elaine waves her off.

"We SMSed on FaceBook all of the time, it's practically the same thing," Elaine insists.

"Not really," Ezra wryly disagrees "but I am really glad to be seeing you again."

She pulls her part mangled, part folded schedule out of her pocket, squinting and looking at the page closely to try and see what the secretary wrote out for her. Arithmetic, wonderful, Ezra mused sarcastically. She knew from what she was told that that particular classroom was on the third floor... and this academy had no lifts, only stairs. Joy... "So," Elaine after a moment of silence between them "since you're, so far, not opposed to seeing more of me," Ezra giggles shortly "there's this little thing that's going on tonight, ya know, first day back at school, real low key. Now I know parties aren't your usual M.O, but it'd be a great chance to hang out and-"

"I'll go." Elaine stops Ezra and walks around to face her as opposed to before when she was walking beside the short ginger girl.

"Wait sorry, I think I just suffered a stroke or something, did you just say that you'd come? Without me having to do hours of convincing?" Ezra bites her lip for a moment, turning the statement over in her head before pushing down all of her insecurities and nodding vividly.

"Yes, yes, I'd like to go." Elaine lets out a high pitched screech from her down in her throat and clasps her hands together.

"Sweet, sweet. I cannot wait to see you later, really, but if I'm late on the first day my parent's would kill me," Elaine stresses. Ezra shakes her head, still biting her lip, tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Sure they would."

Ezra eventually made it home as she had called it a long while ago. She set her bag down at the door and left the foyer to head into the kitchen. Not that her or Aaron had actually bought any substantial food yet. However, Ezra was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a small aluminum can of iced tea waiting for her on the large quartz kitchen island counter top. Ezra plucked the can up into her hands and flipped the cap and when her hand closed around it she could feel a slightly damp sticky note on the other side. Ezra peeled it off and read the messy scrawl.

 _Figured you might want the sugar boost. ;P_  
 _-Aaron_

Ezra grinned at the fact that her brother felt the need to sign his own name since it was clear that nobody else would set foot in this house besides the two of them. The family had... a certain reputation of sorts right before they had packed up and left. It had been quite the talk of the town for a while. A tragic story really. Ezra sighed at her sorry reminiscing. Wishing wouldn't get her anywhere, though she still insisted to indulge herself in fantasies. Ezra, with her iced tea bottle in hand, made her way up the long, curved granite staircase that went up the second floor of the large house. The family was also, for the foreseeable future, quite rich. Their father was a business owner and a bloody good one at that. He'd, at one time, had several stores set up all over East Whales. Ezra didn't even notice that she'd come to her fathers old office or study as some would say. All the classic antique furniture in the room had been covered over or wrapped up. All of the windows were closed and the carpet was immensely dusty along with many other items inside the spacious room. Ezra set her bottle down on one of the shelves next to the doorway, which was covered over with a tan sheet. Ezra looked around the room for a while, realizing that she was pointlessly reminiscing again, but what harm could it really do? Ezra tilted her head up and twirled around to look at the hanging chandelier in the vaulted ceiling. She bumped into something hard. Something wooden. It clunked with the force. Ezra hissed mildly with the pain to her lower back, she rubbed it in annoyance before stopped and realizing the treasure she'd just bumped into. Literally. Ezra, without a second thought, grasped the dusty cream colored sheet and yanked it away, spewing thick clouds of dust in all directions. Ezra coughed several times and covered over her open bottle to avoid the haze to be spilling into her drink. As soon as most of it had faded and after Ezra had blinked most of it out of her striking hazel blue eyes, she could set her sights on the old willow wood piano of her fathers that he had insisted on buying. He was so passionate about music, he would have been impossibly depressed if neither one of his children had taken an interest in the instrument. She sat down on the piano bench, which was wrapped in plastic. It crinkled as she adjusted herself on it. The girls pale digit's hovered over white porcelain keys, but did not press down on them. She couldn't do it. Ezra got up off the bench, pushing it back and swiftly moving away to leave the room. She only back tracked when she noted that she'd forgotten her iced tea. She reached back to grab it and clumsily spilled it on the rug with her lazy grip. "Oh bloody hell," Ezra snapped quietly. She set the bottle down on the floor and she knelt down to examine the puddle that was surely staining the carpet. As Ezra was knelt down and on all fours, she noted a similar, albeit purple stain under the old piano. Ezra's eyes watered at the attached memory.

 _ **8 years ago at the Aldebourne family home in Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **1/29/2001**_

Ezra's father was leaning over the piano again, a bottle of half drunk bourbon sat atop the instrument. No matter what the pain he was in, Henry swore to himself that he wouldn't become a drunk. He wouldn't do that to his children, though he wasn't above drinking a few beers to numb the pain of his wife. Helena...

A young seven year old Ezra played underneath the piano, looking at the pictures in a story book she had taken from her bedroom. It was about princess Ariel and her life under the sea. Ezra completely adored it, even from a young age it was one of her favorites. She had brought a juice pouch with her, but had squeezed it too hard and spilt it a little. Woops. Ezra was part way through reading the pictures of her story book when she heard a sniffle from her father above her. Ezra looked up from her book and peeked out from under the piano. The is the first time Ezra had ever caught her father crying. It was almost foreign to her to see her daddy so broken down. Ezra pulled herself out from under the large instrument and hauled herself up on the bench next to her sobbing father. Ezra's pale little legs couldn't quite touch the ground and so they swung innocently back and forth. Ezra just looked up at her father and didn't say a word. She really didn't these days after the accident, she was still in speech therapy as part of her mental rehab. Ezra was, however, a good listener, which is why she was able to do what she did next. Her little fingers pressed down on the pristine white keys, Henry took great pride in cleaning and keep the antique piece in immaculate condition. Ezra started playing the notes she knew. The ones she'd hear her daddy play all of the time. Henry's ears perked up and even so did her for a brief moment. His weak slumped over body found some new strength in the long parted notes that Ezra was playing to a slightly broken tune. Henry eventually sat up all the way again, albeit still hunched over. Bless him, Ezra was trying to play, very brokenly he might add, Parchelbel- Cannon in D. A popular tune in the Aldebourne house. The same piece played at Henry and Helena's wedding. Henry, with his own shaky hands, adjusted Ezra's to the correct position that her hands should have formed to reach other keys with a bit more ease. Then he himself began to play the second part in a lower key. Crying more and more with every note. Helene loved this song with a dying passion. She would done anything to see Ezra try and play it for Henry now. She would have absolutely adored even waking moment of the broken melody and would have later replayed it in her head, along with the mental image of Ezra sitting side by side with her proud father beaming down at his daughter. But not today. It might as well have been funeral music, but his daughters efforts alone seemed to melt a broken shard of Henry's heart.

 _ **Present day...**_

Ezra hadn't noticed that hot tears were stinging the corners of her eyes and rolling silently, gently down her flushed cheeks.


	2. Magics Missed Pt 2

_**8 years ago in Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **7/18/2001**_

The young ginger haired girl refused to sit still, constantly moving about the bright and colorful room filled with shelves full of various toys and craft supplies. Ezra like coming here with her daddy, there was all sorts of things to do, she didn't, however, enjoy her lessons with Miss Cara as much. Miss Cara tried to get Ezra to talk to her and speak properly, Ezra didn't like this. She tried to speak, but it never came out how it sounded in her head. The sounds were all jumbled up and mixed with other sounds that shouldn't fit together. It was very frustrating that no one could understand her. The poor girl.

This was all said to be a result of the brain trauma she had received from the accident. Henry had been advised by a few of the doctors to sign her up for a unique form of speech therapy, which he promptly did, seeing as she greatly needed it.

"Look at this," said Miss Cara, sitting down next to Ezra as the little girl way playing with some dolls in a large plastic house in the corner. "What pretty gowns, are they princess'?" She asks. Ezra thinks for a moment then nods avidly. The corners of Miss Cara's lips twitch upwards at the corners. "You've got so much to say don't you, Ezra?" Ezra shrugged her shoulders and went back to twirling the dolls golden hair with her nimble little fingers. Miss Cara takes the dolls out of Ezra's hands and holds up for her to plainly see. "What color is this?" Miss Cara asks, pointing to the blue sparkly dress the doll has on.

"Blí-áse," the girl hopelessly fumbled over her words. Miss Cara really didn't understand the strange accent that the girl put over some of the words. It didn't really fit any variation of English pronunciation, so she wasn't sure at all what Ezra was trying to say. Miss Cara caught Henry's expression out of the corner of her eye. He seemed upset, hopeless, almost devastated. Miss Cara pushed her glasses back up and swiped a piece of strait blonde hair out from in front of them.

"Buh-lew," Miss Cara sounds out very brokenly and firmly.

"Ba-lew." Miss Cara grins at Ezra's good effort and repeats the word, albeit faster. "Blue," Ezra says after her and it comes out a little shaky, but otherwise correct.

"Very good," Miss Cara praises and Ezra only shrugs again and goes back to her dolls. "Let's take a break then." Miss Cara gets up and smooths out her khakis pants upon doing so, lifting herself up off the ground. "I'm sure it will go away," the speech teacher tries to assure the father.

"It's like she's replaced the whole English language with gibberish," frets Henry "it doesn't make a lick of sense, none of us can make heads or tails of it all."

"I know, I know, but she's getting there. She is. These little alterations will be gone soon."

"I hope," Henry says. There were so many medical issues that had arisen since the accident. Ezra had been hit the hardest than anyone by the crash, well, besides Helena...

Ezra had had a long psychical recovery in the after the accident. She couldn't even walk for the first six weeks afterwards, Henry or Aaron had to carry her up and down stairs if she needed to come out of her bedroom, but eventually she'd managed to regain the strength. Ezra had also sustained quite a bit of brain damage, no internal bleeding thank god, but there were various other altercations. Ezra had much trouble speaking, she could babble, but no more. Though even now she was learning English again. The girl was young and had much spirit, she was proving to knock down all that stood in her path. This last part, however, worried Henry the most.

Ezra had taken a liking to myths and fairytales from a very young age, as did most girls, however, by the age Ezra was currently at it was about the time for children to move off of these fantasies. At least move off the belief that these legends were real. Ezra had, in fact, been doing that herself, but as soon as she woke up from the accident, the one thing she verbally claimed was that the princess' in her story books were real. It was concerning to say the least.

Henry had also been taking Ezra to a psychiatrist in hopes to help straiten her out. A young new up and coming doctor was who Henry had employed and though he was not as experienced, he was becoming greatly know through out the city for being near revolutionary in his inventive methods. Henry was more than happy to give it a try if he thought that it might help Ezra in any way. The doctor, Ryan Morris, had claimed that her fantasy was due to the apparent loneliness that Ezra felt with the absence of her mother and though Ryan quickly amended also saying that Henry was making great strides supporting her as a single father, there's a certain void that can't be fully filled by that alone. A certain bond by mother and child that can't be fully psychologically explained. This point saddened Henry much. It was his fault the car crashed. It was his fault his daughter was like this now.

 _ **Present Day...**_  
 _ **9/9/2008 11:00 pm**_

Ezra had showed up to the party despite her many, many worries about it, but she didn't have the heart to stand Elaine up despite herself. Ezra still didn't like parties, she never had really been a fan of crowds. She was a bit of an introvert... minus the bit. Plus, a lot of people that she and Aaron used to know were here. Ezra thought it would have only been people from their school, but this was certainly more than that and Ezra was becoming wary of the gathering more and more. The alcohol was the first thing that made Ezra uncomfortable. Despite her father's considerable efforts when she was younger, he did occasionally drink himself into a stupor and pass out wherever he was. It was a rare occasion really...

"Come on, dance with me," Elaine says, pulling Ezra out onto the outdoor park late at night where the party was being held. Some guys had dragged a small stereo here and had gotten a few good CD's and records.

"I don't know-" Elaine held her hand up.

"Iz, if there's one thing I know you and Aaron both used to love, it was dancing." Ezra shrugged sheepishly. It wasn't wrong. During parties like this when they were younger Ezra and Aaron would entertain themselves by flouncing around like maniacs. As they got older they got gradually better and it was all just good fun.

Before Ezra knew it she was in with a large group of people who were also dancing to the song being played. Ezra was facing opposed to Elaine and soon enough they were both dancing without a care. One of the guys also dancing had gotten a little too close to Ezra and Elaine. Ezra had moved away from them, but Elaine didn't seem to take notice apparently, until one of touched her in a way a woman shouldn't be. Elaine slapped his hand away. "No free rides," she said flirtatiously and with a wink. Ezra couldn't believe Elaine would flirt with that. It was completely inappropriate and yet she was just going with it? Ezra wasn't sure if this was just an image thing with Elaine, but she didn't particularly like it.

Later Elaine had gotten a drink for herself, but Ezra had refused. Elaine had become a bit... wilder than Ezra remembered, though Ezra was herself incredibly cautious. "Just try a sip?" Elaine offered. Ezra still shook her head and held her hand out to decline. Ezra glanced down at the her friends digital watch, noting that she had already been here way longer than she'd intended to be, but every time Ezra would try to escape her brunette friend would beg for just a few more minutes and everyone knows how that all goes.

"So she's still a mute," says someone that Ezra pleasantly thought she was rid of. Or rather Aaron was pleasantly pleased he was rid of.

"Veronica, hi," Elaine says and Veronica grins mildly. Ezra supposed they were all friends once upon a time. All of their parent's knew each other and so they all had seen each for get together's and birthday parties, holidays. Veronica wasn't someone Ezra had ever particularly like though. She was a bit of queen bee, like cliché mean girls style. She and Aaron had dated for a time, mainly only because each others friends had set them up. It lasted an amazingly long duration of two months before Aaron couldn't stand her antics anymore and broke it off. His friends weren't all that happy, but Aaron hadn't been able to breathe that easy in a long while.

"Elaine," Veronica greets with weak fake enthusiasm. Her smile is so superficial. Ezra mentally rolled her eyes, not doing so psychically as to draw attention to herself. The best thing to do in these situations was to just ignore it. It's what Aaron had claimed along with many others. Veronica looked over Ezra and raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Yes, I can," Ezra says lowly, answering Veronica's non-verbal mocking inquisitions. Veronica rocked back on her heels and wore a fake expression of surprise and bemusement on her face.

"Ladies and gentlemen she speaks," Veronica exclaims louder than she needed to. Ezra just stayed silent, glancing around at the rest of the party, trying to take her mind of the uncomfortable conversation. "Is it your bed time, Princess? Waiting for your daddy to come pick you up?" Ezra's eyes shoot to Veronica, staring up at her with a kind of stricken expression of pain. Veronica's brows furrow slightly in confusion.

"V, don't," Elaine warns lowly.

"It was just a question," Veronica states, mildly confused and all too innocently.

"Guess you were just hoping that it would be Aaron," Ezra snaps coldly, still with the same odd expression as before. Veronica's eyebrows shoot up in surprise of the usually shy reserved girls retort.

"Wow, I didn't really expect that from you," Veronica admits "and we are long since broken up, FYI."

"Boy do I know," Ezra mutters, but then chokes on all further words as Veronica's next expression of astonishment hits center stage. Ezra turns to Elaine and speaks very quietly. "I need to go."

"Um, okay, I'll drive you," Elaine starts, but Ezra's already walking away. She's moving so hastily that she bumps into someone and she gets beer spilt all over her shirt and part of her jacket. There are several verbal notes of acknowledgement of this by the other party goers, but Ezra tries to pay them no mind as she runs off.

"What the hell was that about?" Veronica questions, still with a mild hint of bitterness.

"Didn't you hear about what happened to Mr. Aldebourne?" Elaine asks shocked and a little upset for her friend.

"No, I had a semester in America when it happened," Veronica explains "what happened?"

"I..can't say," Elaine says downing the rest of the contents of her cup. Veronica wanted to know badly and knew if Elaine kept going like this, soon she'd be too stoned to keep a secret anyways.

Ezra had showered that night, cleaning all of that disgusting smelling beverage off of herself. It was sticky in her crazy red curls and it matted them to her pale skin. She sniffled under the hot shower water, but she never cried. She was so awkward. She could blame it all on the accident. Really. But she never did, though that's what everyone else did with all of her flaws.

Ezra had later tucked herself up in bed, leaving Aaron alone to his university project that he was working on with one of his friends. Aaron hadn't known that Ezra had been out so late, he didn't like her being out that late alone. The teenaged girl pulled a hard cover book off one of her big black bookshelves and opened it up. It was another Shakespearean novel. Romeo and Juliet was a tragic story, but she loved it nonetheless. Many thought it had a stupid and pointless ending whereas Romeo had killed himself to be forever with his love in death, through the gates of Avalon and what ever lied ahead. It was dark, a bit depressing, but it was oddly comforting to a situation Ezra had been through...

The next morning it was only Tuesday and so Ezra was off to St. Elyan again for the second time in what would be many times until she graduated and headed off to university. Ezra walked inside the large school building after Aaron had dropped her off and the two had gotten breakfast at a small café they liked. Aaron expressed how dead tired he was, being up almost all night working on a school project of his with his partner and friend Luke Williams. Aaron must have been so tired that he didn't notice his younger sister's nervous distress that morning.

Ezra noted, as she walked up the front threshold stairs to St. Elyan's, that there were several kids here that were at the party last night. No one she really knew though. Ezra figured by now that she was just overreacting. She'd made a few insults and gotten a little wet, that was not by any standards a huge embarrassment. Ezra walked into the halls as swiftly as usual, trying not to get bumped by any of the other kids, Ezra was a short for her age and was easily pushed around. Ezra looked through the mobs of people to the left hand wall, trying to spot her locker. She froze in the middle off the hallway when she saw it. She was bumped and nearly knocked over by one of the girls who passed her. There was something written in red all over her locker regarding her father. Ezra's eyes instantly went wide and she started quivering. Who would do this?!

"Oh no, Iz, I am so sorry," someone mutters from next to the red head. Ezra turned to her friend Elaine with tears welling up in her eyes.

"You knew about this?" She squeaked sadly.

"No, I just-"

"Elaine, what?" Ezra demanded sternly and Elaine cringed a little at the smaller girls upset antics.

"I had.. a few too many last night and it just slipped out, Iz, I'm so sorry," Elaine begged her apology. Ezra just shook her head, tears threatening to fall at any second.

"I can't believe you'd tell anyone about that," Ezra says lowly, in a tone with nothing else but hurt mild shock "you knew what it meant."

"I know, but it wasn't my fault, I was drunk," Elaine tried to plead her case, but it didn't seem to be allaying Ezra any. How could someone blame something like this on the fact that they'd intentionally wanted to drink so much? There was no excuse.

"Don't talk to me," Ezra says lowly, still pained "just don't." Ezra walks off with Elaine not even bothering to call after her friend- Maybe friend- at this point. Elaine looked at the red painted words. _Henry Aldebourne, death by_ \- Elaine shut her eyes tight, not wanting to read the last few words. She knew how it went and she knew that she'd betrayed Ezra's trust in an bad way.

Ezra moved through lots of people. Some of the other classmates looked back at her as the girl frantically moved passed them with tears starting to fall. Ezra had to get away. Just anywhere, any place she could be alone. Ezra had ran up to the second floor which was way less populated at this time and Ezra shut herself inside the first classroom that she found. She closed her eyes and leaned against the door, when she opened her eyes her vision was blurred with tears, but at least the classroom was empty and she had some solitary. Ezra moved a few paces away from the door before collapsing and sliding down against the plain cream colored wall. Ezra clutched her knees up against her chest so that she was all folder up and her red puffy eyes were hidden as she buried her head in her knees, though the shaking of her sobs couldn't be stopped. Elaine had betrayed her families biggest secret. One that should have never been brought out, one that the rest of Ezra's family tried so hard to keep concealed and Elaine had thrown it out there without a second thought. Her old best friend. Was nothing sacred anymore? Ezra bet not.

One of the two doors, the door on the north wall of the classroom, swung open and Ezra didn't even notice it currently. The old teacher, Mr. Emrys, doesn't fail to notice the curled up kid in his classroom, even in his senile age. "What are you doing in here?" He asks and it's all in a concerned tone as opposed to the snippy one Ezra had only ever heard out of him before. The ginger quickly sprung to her feet brushing herself off and trying to compose herself in front of her tough teacher.

"I was- I'm sorry- I just wanted to be alone, um-" The teacher grunted in, what was it, understanding?

"Many an idiot walk those halls, I don't blame you for trying to escape all that," he muses as he walks over to his desk for something. Ezra sniffles and doesn't answer. Mr. Emrys hands her tissue and Ezra takes it, thanking him quietly and then uses it to dry her eyes. "I won't ask what's wrong," he says, rummaging again through his various shelves and desk drawers "because I know that won't help and I doubt you want to tell me anyways." Ezra chuckles wetly.

"It's all true really," she answers with a weak half-grin. Mr. Emrys grunts again as an answer. He seems to do that a lot.

"Ah ha!" He says victoriously as he pulls something off of a high shelf. Ezra can't see what it is exactly, but it's big and looks kind of heavy. Mr. Emrys glances back at the girl without turning around and mutters something under his breath that Ezra can't understand. He then swiftly, as swift as he can at his age, turns around and walks back over to Ezra, offering his a large brown leather bound book. "A distraction might help and a little birdie told me that you like to read." Ezra looks up at the teacher whose expression is very calm and almost welcoming, so the girl gingerly takes the book in her own hands.

"Thank you," she says. Ezra opens it up and begins to skim a few of the pages. She grins legitimately now. "This is like a fairytale," she muses happily.

"Mm, yes, of Camelot. Have you heard of the tale?"

"I've read the Shakespearean novel over a dozen times," Ezra announced, excited about the prospect of a possibly follow up of the story. The Quest for Camelot was an amazing, well written story. It had enough action adventure and romance to please just about anyone. That it until it reached the ending. It seemed unfinished in a sense.

"As have I," the teacher says, nodding approvingly "as have I."

"Veronica," calls Aaron. Veronica's already waiting at the local coffee shop that he'd asked her to meet at. Aaron had went inside, ordered a double and then sat down at a table outside with the woman.

"Long day?" Veronica asks as she sips her own hot beverage. The inner warmth the liquid spreads was very welcoming in the cold autumn months.

"Been on a crazy wild goose chase already," Aaron explains to the other "still on one actually." Veronica sighs and toys with the end of her scarf a little. She knew where this conversation was going. She had an idea of what Aaron wanted to talk about the minute she got a call from him.

"And here I was hoping you just wanted to catch up," Veronica muses wryly. Aaron raises an eyebrow warningly. "You may think I'm a piece of white trash, but I have a little bit more integrity than that." Aaron sets his foam cup down and leans over on the table, speaking lowly and harshly.

"It said bourbon and bedsheet, who else really knew the details, V?" Veronica sets- slams- her own cup down on the table and holds her hands out.

"Stop, just stop. Look, I can't exactly prove anything, but I wasn't the only one Elaine went blabbering off to."

"Now see," Aaron interjects "when Elaine called and confessed the whole thing to me, she claimed she only remembered talking to you."

"She was completely wasted, Aaron," Veronica admits softly "she was literally passed out in the backseat when I got her home." Veronica had decided to give Elaine a ride considering the fact that the younger woman was completely out of it and Veronica didn't want to have her driving in that state.

"Well, that does sound like Elaine recently," Aaron mutters "but then who was she supposedly talking to."

"Some perverted morons from the Saxons Gang-" Aaron scoffed and snorted with Veronica's accusations. Aaron knew that Veronica had always been obsessed with these guys ever since they set that church chapel fire in '04. It had been quite a big thing in Carleon for a while. Veronica was now currently working on becoming a freelance solo journalist and so far the two stories she's partnered on had been about the Saxons Gang.

"Just hear me out, okay? I know the scores, they have a lot of reason to hate the Aldebourne's." Aaron quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" Aaron challenges "why?"

"Think about it. The Saxons Gang are a major problem back in '04, they practically run this city. Then they start to get cocky and start hitting richer, private owned business on their robbery's and raids. Those business owners take issue with it and start to fund security and more safety measures in the community, ultimately putting a stop to the Saxons reign," Veronica explains "that gives a whole host of reasons right there, because you know who first started funding that security program?" Aaron curses under his breath. "Henry Aldebourne."

"Stop, even if this was the Saxons Gang or whatever, why would the settle to just pull some cruel idiotic on Ezra?" Aaron challenges. Veronica sighs and picks up her coffee cup again.

"That I don't know."

Ezra waited at school Aaron was late for picking her up. Ezra wished that she could just drive herself. She hated waiting around this place while everyone else roamed passed her. She got some passing glances for her antics today, but nothing more, though Ezra was so sensitive and insecure that in her mind she saw people were completely full on staring at her. Confrontation of any kind, even imaginary apparently, frightened her.

Ezra looked up at the large, roman numeral clock docked high up on the white stone wall in the main hallway. School had officially let out at 3:30 pm, it was now passed 4:00. Ezra sighed. The halls were completely empty at this point. All student's had either gone home. Even the teachers were starting to head off. Some stopped to ensure that Ezra was going to be picked up, the principal opted not to leave until someone came for the girl, but now the principal was back in her office and Ezra was alone. Not really knowing what else to do, Ezra decides to take out the book Mr. Emrys let her borrow to try and stave her boredom.

The brown leather bound book isn't actually as heavy as it seemed to be before. It looked so old and antique Ezra was so careful with it. There was a crest on the front of the cover. A golden, upright dragon. The symbol of Camelot as described in The Quest for Camelot. Ezra opened up the book, even the pages were old parchment. This book was probably older than Mr. Emrys was and Ezra had guessed that he was maybe about eighty years old. She had some trouble reading the scrawl on the pages, it was cursive after all, but she can make out the letters just barely enough so that the words of the story made sense.

It was already proving to be a wonderful story, even though the beginning was dark.

 _King Arthur Pendragon had been mortally wounded with a cursed blade, so no mortal medicine was able to cure him, so claimed the anonymous author. The King's servant and loyal friend, Merlin, had tried all in his power- which was a lot considered the legendary warlock that he was- to try and bring the King to the one place he could be saved known as the isle of the blessed, a small island in Camelot, a little patch of sacred land in the great sea's of Meredoc. During the two's efforts to try and get to this place, they were attacked by Morgan la fey and her dark knights known as the Saxons. Morgan la fey was a powerful priestess of the old Religion and was only slain by Merlin wielding a godly weapon known as Excalibur._

Ezra had been so enraptured in her story that she jumped a mile high when a school janitor came by with his trolley full of cleaning supplies. He was now currently trying to clean off the red writing on Ezra's locker. Ezra peaked over from where she was in a narrowed hallways right near the front door. She sighed heavily at the words and she felt a lump in her throat. "I wanted to make sure that was cleaned up before tomorrow," says a voice near the large front double-doors. Ezra slowly tears her eyes away from the locker and the writing and her eyes trail upwards to her brother. "I'm sorry you had to see that at all."

"The words or the event?" Ezra whispers softly as her question. It goes a little higher pitched at the end, her voice revealing her sadness. Aaron holds a hand out.

"Come on, if we stick around much longer they'll kick us out for sure." The corner's of Ezra lips twitch upwards ever so slightly at his efforts. She slips the large borrowed book back into her bag, grasps Aaron's hand and the two are on their way. Ezra walks out the door, but Aaron can't help but look back at the horrid writing one last time.

 _-Henry Aldebourne, death by bed sheet and bourbon. Suicide._


	3. Magics Missed Pt 3

_**Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **9/11/2008**_

As soon as Ezra had done all that she needed to that night she'd dashed up to her room and pulled the brown book out of her knapsack. She plopped down on her bed and turned on the small lamp on one of the black end tables that were on either side of her bed. The dim light shown just enough for her to see the words and Ezra devoured every single one.

Even though Morgan la fey had laid dead in the forest's on the far east side of Camelot, the journey the King and the warlock made was hard and perilous. Three days they had foraged and made haste to the Isle of the Blessed. The warlock was overjoyed to have this sacred island in sight, but it was hopeless now as he peered back upon his King, his friend, who had collapsed upon the green grass. The warlock had begged the King to keep going, promising that they were so, so close now, but the King relented his ambition and strength and simply ordered- rather asked his friend to take hold of him.

"There's something I want to say," the King rasped weakly.

"You're not going to say goodbye," the Warlock insisted, even though deep down he knew that this was it.

"No.. Merlin, everything you've done I know now, for me, for Camelot, for the kingdom you helped me build-"

"You'd have done it without me," the Warlock says and the King wavers in the mental decision of whether or not that have been true or not.

"Maybe," the King's eyes drifted off and they glossed over. The cursed metal piercing him inside was becoming too much to bear, but he knew he wouldn't have to much longer. "I want to say something I've.. never said to you before," the King struggled to even turn his body just slightly to meet his friend's sorrowful, terrified blue eyes "thank you." The King weakly lifted his hand up to pat the back of his closest friend. He grinned sincerely for a moment before his limbs just felt to tired and numb. All of him did. The King's eyes fell closed and the last thing her ever heard was his friend screaming his name, before everything faded away.

The Warlock shouted and cried out, screaming words of the old religion out into the night, desperate in any way to get his friend back, but with no avail. How could it be that Arthur Pendragon, should have died before his time, The Once and Future King to not unite the lands of Albion after all? How could it be that with the power of the Greatest, most powerful Dragon Lord could not revive the King? How was it so that the ancient prophecies of Avalon foresaw these event's to transpire again beginning then with the dead, half dead and revived?

Ezra sniffled and sat back to wipe up her tears before they stained the pages of the book. It was a very emotional story. A very good story albeit. Ezra's first thought after she composed herself was it can't end like that. For a girl whose favorite author's were Shakespeare and Stephen King you think she would have been used to these types of endings, but this one actually got her and she applauded it for that. She'd never read a story that made her fell the way this one did.

In the ending of the story, Guinevere had lied, Arthur had died and Merlin was never to be seen ever again. The last two words were all of the insight the story every gave. Camelot Falls.

Ezra drifted off that night dreaming of a time long ago.

 _ **Caerleon, England...**_  
 _ **9/13/2008**_

Ezra had now, officially, been attending St. Elyan's for a full week now. Things were still slightly dismal. There was no more writings, though, but still, Elaine wouldn't even make eye contact with the ginger girl and to be honest Ezra wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to hang around Elaine at all, at least for a while. Aaron still could never make it on time for pick-up, thanks to Lloyd Murray Ezra still was getting loads of Latin homework and still a friendless wallflower. So there was that...

Ezra decided to spend her time today, knowing that Aaron would be later than usual to come get her since he'd had a late start this morning, to go see Mr. Emrys. She was hoping to be able to catch him before he left. When Ezra got to his classroom she she that the teacher was still packing things up in his leather bag. Ezra smiled and walked into the room and up to his desk, holding the large treasured book in her arms. "I guess I should probably be returning this," she says to get his attention. Mr. Emrys looks up and his brows furrow in confusion and part astonishment.

"You managed to finish it all within the course of four days?" Ezra nods happily.

"I really do like to read," she says offering him the book, but he doesn't take it right away. Instead he poses a question.

"What did you think of it?" Ezra shrugged as she recalled the pages she read a few nights ago.

"I found it very endearing, even to the very end. Even though Arthur lay on his death bed his friend wouldn't leave him, but Merlin left Camelot anyways and... I'm sorry, there's just some thing's I didn't understand," Ezra said to cut off her ramblings.

"Like what?" Mr. Emrys asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"According to this book," Ezra says, holding it up "Arthur was the Once and Future King, but he died like that..." Ezra stopped herself again, waiting a moment to contemplate what she really wanted to say. Mr. Emrys seemed patient enough to let her think. "This story mention briefly a line about the tale beginning again, but not anew, then it referenced the dead as The Once and Future King." Mr. Emrys seems please by her statement. His eyes seem to light with anticipation. Could he possibly know what Ezra would ask next? "Would it be possible for Arthur to com back from the dead?"

"No," Mr. Emrys says very matter-of-factly "I'm afraid it's impossible for anyone, no matter how strong, to return from the gates of Avalon... Now, what about your other question?" There it was. Ezra had no idea how he somehow knew what was on her mind, but by some miracle he did and his expression showed anticipation of the question.

"Is- is it possible- the things in this book," Ezra stuttered, but Mr. Emrys only seemed to excite more by this "is it real?"

"Do you have any doubt?" He asks. Emphasis on the you part of it. Ezra supposed her neurological condition would be listed in her medical file which the school had record of. Ezra wasn't sure how many of her teachers had seen it, or if it was on a need-to-know basis. If Mr. Emrys had known he certainly hadn't showed it, he hadn't treated Ezra any differently than he had anybody else. It was refreshing and nicer than anyone knew for Ezra to feel normal around this man.

"I thought it was too much to hope for," answered the child earnestly. Mr. Emrys shook his head.

"It isn't." While he leaves Ezra with a million different thoughts, someone making her feel like for the first time since the accident that she wasn't the crazy one, he follows up with a question. "Is it possible for your brother to ever be even close to on time?" Ezra snickers and shakes her head.

"I don't think so," she says wryly, amused to Mr. Emrys' annoyed look. He starts to walk out of the classroom.

"Come on then, somebody 'ought to bring you home before those blasted janitors start trying to sweep you out the door again." Ezra chuckles lightly and opts to just leave Aaron a voicemail saying that she got a ride. She was fine with Mr. Emrys.

 _ **Caerleon, England. Aldebourne family home...**_  
 _ **9/9/2005**_

Little Ezra lays on her stomach on a plush rug in the center of her bedroom, reading a book. A book of fairytales. She greatly enjoyed them and it was a great comfort. So what if she was twelve? The people who initially wrote these stories were full grown adults and they didn't get made fun of for it. That may be because now they were rich and famous because of all of the royalties of their books...

Ezra's father, Henry, was walking passed her room and saw what she was doing. He sighed heavily and went inside the room. "Ezra, you do know the party is starting soon, right?" Her father asks. He leans against her tall bed post that was set up so that a canape would hand over it. "I know the Vaughn's and Levine's are excited to hear you play," he says, referencing her skill with the piano. He took great pride in that as her teacher.

"Well, excuse me if I don't feel like having a party today," Ezra huffs and she sits up. Henry looks down sadly.

"You can't always remember today as something bad, maybe tonight will try and lighten it up a bit," Henry suggests.

"It's like you want me to forget her," Ezra snaps almost wetly as tears threaten to start brimming in her blue hazel eyes, but she refuses and holds them back for now.

"Of course I don't," says Henry "but I don't want you to feel sad and alone whenever I might not be here to be with you on this day." Ezra says nothing and she crosses her arms, not making eye contact with her father. "You have this unrealistic notion of perfection and when it's anything but that you get nearly depressive," Henry says and it's not said like an insult it's said with parental concern. Henry scoops up the book Ezra was reading and slams it shut, it angers him slightly that this was the only thing that seemed to catch her attention. "I blame this for that."

"Dad-" Ezra's cut off.

"Life can be wonderful, Ezra, it can be good and fun, but it isn't perfect, that's for bloody sure. What's written here," Henry hits the front cover hard "this will never happen in the real world. I blame these from keep you from the here and now," Henry claims, he grunts marginally as he rips the entire book apart.

"Hey!" Ezra shouts as she jumps to her feet. Her cries are blood curdling and it's all over a book. "That's mine!"

"You know that both I and doctor Morris told you to put these away," Henry says firmly, but doesn't at all raise his voice.

"You both call me crazy, but what's wrong with loving a story?" Ezra shouts angrily and desperately. Her father had never seen things her way.

"Sweetheart, it isn't realistic, this isn't the world we live in." Ezra shakes her head and stomps her foot down angrily.

"Realistic? Your sense of realism is pretending everything is okay, that people will stop attacking your stores, that it will make it better if we throw parties all of the time, that it's somehow okay that my mother is gone! Did you ever think that maybe this isn't the kind of world I want to live in?" Henry doesn't say anything. Not a word. Ezra moves passed her temporarily mute father and passed her older brother who had been standing in the door way watching since Ezra first cried out. It would surely be a long night.

Ezra sat in the passenger seat in Mr. Emrys' car. It was mildly beat up and basic, but it ran incredibly smooth, so there was no real trouble with it. She had of course thanked him for the ride. He'd asked her if it was alright that they took a little detour on their way to Ezra's house."That's completely fine," Ezra had said then. However, she didn't really expect him to park his car off on the grass on the side of the road. Ezra's brows knit in confusion, but she doesn't question it as of yet and she get's out of the car. Mr. Emrys is gazing off across the river to some small island with some old stone structure on it. Ezra stands next to him, her eyes following his gaze.

"Is that where we're going?" Ezra asks.

"Yes," the old man answers simply and he starts to walk away from that edge and over to the left, heading towards some trees. Ezra hadn't yet left her spent and does a double take to the river and her strange teacher.

"But, there's water surrounding it on all sides," Ezra says. She's not protesting she's just confused.

"There's a safe, dry, way 'round," Mr. Emrys claims and now Ezra starting to question him a bit since it's clear that no land or bridge touches the island and there are no boats in sight. How would they possibly cross? Still, Ezra follows the old man into the tree's. He's moving slowly, his head and gaze zooming on in various different places, it leaves Ezra to believe that he's not quite sure where he's going either. "Ah!" He says finally, gesturing happily to a particular place. He quickly moves towards it. "Here we are," he announces. Ezra can see a few stones that are tightly compacted together, but they don't go very far out into the water. Ezra glances down at them and then back up at her teacher oddly. "Well, come on then," he says taking the lead. Ezra isn't very sure about all of this now, but she carefully plants her foot on the compacted stones which are surprisingly smooth and strong. Mr. Emrys is walking right in front of Ezra so she can't see out very far in front of her, but no matter where she steps out in front of her there are still stone. From what Ezra saw at the beginning of this walk there shouldn't still have been stones in front of her. The path barely stretched five feet before. Ezra was about to risk a glance over her shoulder to look behind her. "Eyes ahead," Mr. Emrys snaps and Ezra opts instantly to keep her head down.

It takes a while but eventually the two step off onto dry land. Mr. Emyrs seems pleased as he walks up the dirt path that the small island had. All of the grass around them is dead. Some ferns and shrubs are all the greenery that is alive around them. There are broken stone walls that are only sturdy at the very bottle and jagged and moss covered on the top. The ginger haired girl looks back behind her at the water. Her eyes widen when she see's that there are no stone. No stones except for maybe the five foot path on this side of the water. Strange. Ezra slings both straps of her backpack around her shoulders, holds onto the straps and hikes up the hill with her teacher. They finally make it to the top where a broken stone structure is set. It probably was a castle once, who knows. It's coated in moss and maybe some natural molds, but Ezra can't help but getting a small charge out of being in a real legitimate castle. Ezra looks around at everything her eyes can behold, even though with the state of decay in this place there isn't really much to see. "What is this place?" Ezra breathes her question, still in awe. Mr. Emrys chuckles lightly before answering.

"It's not originally named in your language, but to others it's called Castle Avalon. I'm sure you had read about it in that book I gave you."

"Oh, yes," Ezra says with a wild, excited nod. Castle Avalon was said to have once hosted a princess of Avalon itself. Avalon, in mythology, was said to be in a realm in between life and death, that you crossed the gates of Avalon as you journeyed to the world beyond. Claims in the book told that people on their death bed would get a glimpse of Avalon and describe it's beauty as best they could right before they passed away... but, in the story, Avalon was in a place in Camelot known as- "Are we- I mean- Could this be... The Isle of the Blessed?" Mr. Emrys sighs.

" It was once. I'll tell ya, this place used to be full of every kind of magic you could possibly imagine."

"What changed?" Ezra asks her teacher, mildly disheartened by the fact that this place was now barren with magic.

"I guess what people might call progression," said he in near disgust "the world changed and evolved and with this I suppose magic was left behind." Mr. Emrys' tone was near shattered and for a man who hadn't yet shown any real emotion other than annoyance to Ezra it caught her slightly off guard.

"Did-" Ezra interrupted the obvious deep thought the man was in, she cut herself until he look at her and impatiently made a gesture, urging her to continue. "Did you ever use magic?"

"I did. I was quite well known for it in certain circles," he says a bit boisterously and with a wide grin and all the while Ezra seems completely mesmerized and struck still by this possible revelation.

"Can you show me?" She asks, very strait forward this time and with no stuttering. Mr. Emrys' smile seems to fade almost instantly. Ezra's won expression also dropped in pure empathy for what she didn't know why.

"Magic comes from Avalon and up through this earth and this earth has been petrified and mutilated. It gets worse and worse with each generation being even more senseless than the last!" Mr. Emrys stops himself when he see's that Ezra had marginally shrunk away as his tone got louder and more harsh. Anguish replaced anger in his heart soon enough. "The strength of the earth is made up in a -large- part of it's people. Even I cannot perform smaller spells without taxing myself psychically." The old man slowly hobbles over to a partly chipped, but otherwise in good condition, stone bench off to the side of the ruins. Ezra wasn't really sure what to go on out of all of this and what not to. She'd seen things after the crash, saw things and heard things that made no sense. Unknown places and an unknown language filled her head for so long and none of it ever made any sense. She met Mr. Emrys and the book he has gave her was the first thing that may have held answers. This was possibly the hardest decision she even had to mull over. Was it truth? Or were they both crazy?

The strength of the earth is made up by it's people. Camelot had magic... "Arthur was not just a king, he is The Once and Future King. Take heart, for when Albion's need is greatest, Arthur will rise again," Ezra spoke, reciting the revelation of the Great Dragon from the book Mr. Emrys had given to her. The old teacher looks over at the girl with a blank, unreadable expression. "How? I thought you said no one could come back from the dead."

"They can't. Not fully, only in part."

"How?" Ezra inquires again. Mr. Emrys gestures for her to come over to him and she promptly does. Ezra sat down on the cracked stone floor near to the stone bench.

"I was told stories by my old mentor of souls who navigated their way through afterlife and come back through the gates of Avalon," Ezra listens to him with raped attention "but their mortal bodies are dead and beyond repair. They can, however, re-enter this world as brand new life enters for the first time."

"Do these souls," Ezra begins slowly and anxiously shocked "possess children?"Mr. Emrys' brows quickly raise and his eyes narrow marginally.

"No, no, of course not," he quickly amends since the girl seems to be unnerved by what she had perceived the notion to be. "No, they can become a part of this new person. Their soul, skills, knowledge and sometimes, rarely, even memories come to them."

"You believe that Arthur has been reborn?" Ezra asks, on a bit of an informational overload now and on top of all that she wasn't even sure it was truth, but for now, in this moment, she decided to run with it.

"I do," Mr. Emrys admits "like I said, magic has been gone for a long time, but suddenly it's coming back to Carleon." Carleon, Ezra thought, Carleon was a place in Albion back in the twelfth, could the places be initially the same?

"Why risk telling me all this? I could have accused you as insane and taking me out here in doing so, you could have gotten in so much trouble if I were to even whisper a word to the authorities." Mr. Emrys huffed and pushed himself up off the bench and Ezra followed in suit, picking herself up off the floor. "Why m-" Ezra stopped before even finishing the question. "Do I know this supposed person."

"Perceptive," Mr. Emrys muses without turning around to face Ezra "a trait I had in my youth. It's useful."

"Who is it? I'm not exactly close to anyone in Carleon anymore...Oh, oh!" Ezra says, reeling back at the psychical shock it also brought. "Aaron?" She breathes "how?"

"I thought we had just been over all of that?" The old man says impatiently, turning part way 'round. "I know this because it has been written for almost a millennium and every single sign-"

"Points right to Aaron..." Ezra finishes, still out of breath. Mr. Emrys isn't a fool and he can see all that he's put on the young girl. Or rather he's about to. Yes, he's already seen that too.

"Maybe we're both mad, that could all very well be true. Maybe none of this is real and it's all in the flow of insanity in the jumbled mess of our imaginations, but what if it's Truth?" Ezra wasn't going to answer. It seemed rhetorical, but her silently pressed her for an answer.

"Then we have to help him.. but I don't know how." The old teacher nods.

"Arthur was a great king in his day. He fought many evils and I have no doubt that he will have to do so again in this time, he would have been dead long before if it weren't for those who stood beside him."

"The knights of the round table?"

"Precisely," Mr. Emrys praises "an old friend told me that Arthur wouldn't be the first to return nor would he be the last."

"You- you want me to find them?" Ezra nearly chokes out, but her curiosity over-powers all other things she's feeling, well, except for maybe fear.

"You can. You are in the perfect position to." Ezra looks unsure and her lips part and close as though she's desperately looking for something to say. Mr. Emrys holds up his hand to stop her. "It's no secret that I am old now, far passed my time of glory and may not be here much longer. I'm not what I used to be and I can't complete these tasks on my own anymore. Please. Do me this kindness." Ezra is stiff as a board right now and everything she's heard in this hour alone was possibly cause enough to have a nervous breakdown. She doesn't even know if this is some kind of delusion in her own mind and it's just telling her everything she wants to hear, according to what everyone says it could be that, but, despite everything, Ezra nods in acceptance. Mr. Emrys lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Thank you," he whispers and that's that last thing Ezra remembers in that moment.

 _ **Caerleon, England. Aldebourne family home...**_  
 _ **9/9/2005**_

Ezra had left the house for quite some time to blow off steam after her argument. She was teary eyed then. She had run all the way down several streets and now was met with the rivers end. It overlooked a small island in the middle of it with some broken structure upon it. It was getting dark and it was peaceful there.

Everyone Ezra knew seemed to think that she was crazy, that she wasn't right anymore. Ezra swore them that she wasn't. She got into fights in school because of her beliefs. Everyone around her thought she was a damaged, broken child too far beyond repair. Was she?

Ezra eventually decided to head back to the house. It was now dark and well after how late she should have been out. She was actually very surprised that her father or Aaron had come looking for her yet. They usually did by now. This clearly wasn't the first argument the had, but it was the worst. Ezra feared that her father might be really angry with her, but still, could she really do anything so horrible that it would cause her father not to come for her?

The young girl turned onto her street and saw bright, flashing lights mounted on top of cars in her driveway. Ezra picked up her pace and raced down the street until she came to her house. There were officers there and medics. What happened? Everyone, all of the many people outside, seemed far too busy to notice her at the moment. The were all talking at once and it all amounted to incoherent noise to Ezra. "Where's Aaron? Where's my Dad?" Ezra asked openly, but still no one acknowledged her. Ezra quickly scurried up into the house and only then was she finally noticed.

"Hey!" Shouted an officer warningly, but Ezra didn't stop. She leapt inside the doorway and into the main foyer. She froze then. The officer had caught up with her then, but it was too late. He couldn't erase what she'd just seen from her memory.

Henry Aldebourne with a light blue sheet around his neck strung up from a marble bar of the dual stair railings. His body swung with the fabric, but Henry himself was motionless. A brown glass bottle was shattered below his form. Dead.

"Daddy?" Ezra cries worriedly "DADDY!" She screams. She tries to run forward but the officers picks her up and bring her back out of the house, he does do in a way that obscures her vision of her late father. Ezra is still screaming and kicking and sobbing.

"It'll be alright, angel," the officer murmurs "it'll be alright."

 _ **Caerleon, England.**_  
 _ **9/13/2008**_

Ezra moans as she wakes up. She's position upright and so her spine is a little stiff. She tries to move a hand back to rub the sore spot, but she finds that her arm is obstructed by a seat belt, though she doesn't have that feeling of motion. Ezra moves sorely and anxiously.

"Sit still," says Mr. Emrys whose, very slowly, driving the car down Ezra's street. So slow you couldn't feel it. "You fainted." A million different thoughts charge through Ezra's lethargic mind that's still waking up, though one is more prominent than the others. A certain little chit-chat. Despite all this, Ezra doesn't bring it up.

"Yeah, that sounds like me," she decides to utter instead. Mr. Emrys grunts in acknowledgement and pulls up next to the Aldebourne's home. A second car pulls up behind them. Ezra turns her upper torso and head around to look out the back windshield. It was Aaron's car. He steps out of the car on the drivers seat side with his cellphone in hand. Ezra grabs her bag and get out of Mr. Emrys' car. Aaron shakes his phone a little.

"Got the message just as I was coming to get you. Bad reception I guess," he says and he slips the small device back into his pocket. His brows knit together in concern. He pressed the back of his hand to Ezra's forehead. "Are you alright? You looked pretty flushed."

"I'm okay, I'm just-" Ezra glances at Mr. Emrys, whose still inside the car. He isn't looking at her but he has this expression on his face. Secrecy. "Tired. I'm just tired is all. Long day today." Aaron hums in sympathy and understanding. He stuffs his hands into his pockets as it's fairly cold this time of year. He cocks his head towards the house and Ezra starts off to it without saying another word. Aaron's expression changes to even more confused when Ezra forgoes her manners entirely. Aaron makes his way over the the drivers side of the old teachers car and Mr. Emrys rolls his window down.

"Thank you for giving her a ride. I appreciate it," Aaron says humbly. The older man grins just simply by looking on at the young main.

"It was no trouble, my friend." Aaron furrows his brows but smiles all the same.

"Friend? Have we met before?" He asks. Mr. Emrys' smile does not fade as he shakes his head.

"No, no I suppose that technically we haven't." Aaron politely holds out his hand for Mr. Emrys to shake.

"Aaron Aldebourne," he introduces basically and respectfully. The old man takes the younger mans hand, gripping it tightly.

"Merlin Emrys." Aaron's lips quirk at the ends with amusement maybe even something more than that deeper down.

"Merlin, that's an interesting name." Mr. Emrys hums as an acknowledgement to that. Aaron withdraws his hand and stuff it back into his pocket. "Take care," he says before walking back up to his house.


End file.
